Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES & ADDICTS MARCH 2012, 3 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Good morning everyone,

Well here we are, Saturday already and the day of my daughter’s garage sale and where I could hopefully have sold a few brom’s, but it looks like it’s not to happen as the rain’s returned and it’s raining now and has been pouring all night, hardy the weather for people to go to garage sales!....bugger.

Karen – Yes Lady Luck is a nice plant and something just a little bit different from the usual Neoregelias. It was one I got from Sue in a swap last year and I’m quite pleased with the way it’s coloured up, not as good as it does further north, but not bad for down here

I know what you mean by Arterial Fibrillation, as I have a similar problem but fortunately it only occurred occasionally and hasn’t occurred at all since I’ve been taking Warfarin to keep my blood thin, so fingers crossed. I agree with you, it’s the most horrible feeling and hard to explain except to say it makes you feel really “rotten”.

That’s a good size pup from your Alcantarea, I only ever seem to get spindly little grass pups on mine, and there just seems to be a never ending supply of them. I was waiting for them to get a bit of size before I removed them, but a friend from Queensland says I should remove them while they are small and showed me pic’s of ones he had removed and were growing in a community pot. They weren’t very big at all and he said when he first took them they weren’t much larger than a “matchstick”. I think it may have something to do with the warmer climate up in Queensland as I’m sure if I took them that small they would surely all die down here.

Colleen – Yes that little brom I posted with the name “Marmorata” was one I bought as I liked it because of the colour and the fact that it was quite small and compact. I wondered about the name at the time, but then I know that Marmorata can come in different forms and not having much knowledge of this plant I just accepted that the name was correct. My other Marmorata is a much different colour and a very large plant which leads me to believe that the small one could either be incorrectly named or possibly be a Marmorata hybrid. It does seem like a lot of growers who have NOID’s will just call them Marmorata as long as they are spotted, however until I can find a definite ID I’m afraid it stays with the name I bought it under.

Kristi – Well I was way off the track when I though snowbirds were birds that had migrated to the warmer climate wasn’t I? I was recently reading a post on another forum about Alcantareas and read a post from a woman who came from Canada and who was holidaying in Florida during the winter (I suppose she could be called a “Snowbird”) but it was unbelievable what she claims to have done and then posts it for the entire world to see. If you want a bit of a laugh check out the entry by diane_V toward the end of the following thread: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/bromeliad/msg0907541...

That’s certainly a weird sort of snake you speak of Kristi, how large do they get? I wish the Australian snakes were more like that instead of being some of the most aggressive and venomous in the world and then people wouldn’t be so inclined to kill them as soon as they see them.

I’ll finish with a few pic’s, firstly the Alcantarea grass pups I spoke about in Karen’s post (above). No. 2 is Neo. Amazing Grace (Dark form), No. 3. Neo. Apricot Nectar, No. 4. Guzmania Sanguinea, No. 5. Aechmea Mend (Inverta).

All the best, Nev.